Piedmont Lithium Ltd (ASX:PLL) is focused on the Piedmont lithium project, located in an infrastructure rich region of North Carolina, U.S.
Piedmont's land holdings are less than 25 kilometres from the only two large lithium processing facilities in the country - making it the world’s best-located lithium project.
The region was the world’s primary source for lithium from the 1950's to the 1980's, and hosts the country's only two historic spodumene mines.
Metallurgy is proven, and as an example, Sony commercialised the LI-ion battery using local ore.
Latest assays build scale
Assays from the first 26 holes of the Phase 2 drill program together with visual analysis of the remaining Phase 2 drilling has confirmed eight mineralised trends totalling circa four kilometres of strike length.
The mineralised trends consist of one or more spodumene bearing pegmatite dykes ranging up to 16 meters in drill thickness.
Highlights include:
- 21.3 metres of cumulative thickness of mineralisation across four pegmatites, with high grade zones of: 6.7 metres at 1.32% lithium, 4.5 metres at 1.24% lithium and 1.5 metres at 1.52% lithium; and
- 20.6 metres of cumulative thickness of mineralisation across three pegmatites, with high grade zones of 11.3 metres at 1.43% lithium and 2.8 metres at 1.35% lithium.
Keith Phillips, president and chief executive officer, commented: "These initial Phase 2 results are highly encouraging.
"We continue to be surprised by the sheer extent of the mineralisation and are excited to begin testing the deposit at depth.
"The project is clearly larger than we had first envisioned and it is important that we do the work to properly evaluate the scale of the resource.
"Our Phase 1 drill program identified four potential corridors of mineralisation and our Phase 2 program has in fact defined abundant high-grade mineralisation in each corridor.
"We look forward to releasing the remaining results of our Phase 2 drilling campaign over the coming weeks."
Following the positive results, Piedmont has decided to extend Phase 2 drilling by an additional 3,000 metres.
Key upcoming catalysts
Piedmont have already established relationships with the leading technical and marketing consultants in the lithium sector.
The company now intends to accelerate feasibility studies with regards to metallurgical, mine development and off-take plans.
- Exploration target in December 2017; and
- Maiden resource in early-2018.